THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though the CPM and Left ministers have upped the ante against the privatisation of Trivandrum International Airport, there is a mismatch between the party’s rhetoric against the Centre and the action taken so far by the state government led by it in the privatisation process.At the same time, the airport issue has come as a blessing in disguise for the Left government to wriggle out of the current controversies faced by it, ranging from the gold smuggling case to allegations of graft in the Life Mission project. CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s announcement on Friday that the party would send two lakh mails to the prime minister seeking to retain the airport in the public sector and make it a people’s issue points to this.
According to experts, there is no big difference between the Centre’s stance of awarding the airport’s running to Adani Enterprises for 50 years and the state government’s demand to give the airport to the special purpose vehicle formed by it named Trivandrum International Airport Limited (TIAL).
The only difference is the state will have 26 per cent stake in TIAL, while Adani Enterprises will now have 100 equity. According to a senior officer of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), a majority of the stakes in the airport will still be controlled by private players whether it is awarded to TIAL or Adani group. If the state government was very keen on its demand of keeping the airport in the public sector, it should not have participated in the competitive bidding, he said.
Instead, it should have demanded the retaining of the airport under the AAI. When the Kolkata airport was listed for privatisation, the West Bengal government adopted such a stance and the Centre had to finally yield to the demand of Mamata Bannerjee. The LDF government had some vested interests — be it political or bureaucratic — and that is why it had participated in the competitive bidding for the airport, according to industry insiders.